Tesla self drive car overtaking cyclists

[Drago]

Gzoom has just contradicted themselves. If so many motorists are looking to run us off the road, then why be so happy to accept close passes? Thats like not being worried about having your head chopped off, then going for a walk in ISIS territory while wearing a Bruce Springsteen T shirt anyway.

 

[Dave Davenport]

going for a walk in ISIS territory while wearing a Bruce Springsteen T shirt.

I thought you did that every Friday night for a bit of an adrenalin boost.

 

[Drago]

Well, lately ive take to cycling through Texas wearing an 'I Love Hilary Clinton' T shirt, while Billy Brag blasts out the stereo strapped to the handlebars.

 

[gzoom]

Gzoom has just contradicted themselves. If so many motorists are looking to run us off the road, then why be so happy to accept close passes?

Its called real life? What do you want me to do about motorists who pass too closely?

As I keep on asking, and no one seems to be able to answer. Short of NOT cycling on the roads, I cannot see any way I can avoid a 'close' pass, and given I have little control over what a motorist is doing I simply don't waste time or effort worrying about 'close' passes.

I see people suggest reporting drivers to the police, unless someone magics up more hours in the day I simply don't have the time or inclination to do that.

 

[gzoom]

Where did this bullshit statistic come from ?

Its based on what I experience on the roads, less than 1 in 10 cars overtake me by going into the opposite lane, which appears to be agreed 'safe' overtaking procedure on here for cars passing bikes.

If you guys live in a city where 9 out of 10 cars over take cyclist in the opposite lane than count your selves lucky.

 

[Tripster]

Its based on what I experience on the roads, less than 1 in 10 cars overtake me by going into the opposite lane, which appears to be agreed 'safe' overtaking procedure on here for cars passing bikes.

If you guys live in a city where 9 out of 10 cars over take cyclist in the opposite lane than count your selves lucky.

Sorry, so you meant 90% of motorists don’t overtake on opposite side of road not 90% of motorists hate cyclists and 1% want to kill us

 

[Drago]

The good news is that Tesla Model S and Model Y reliabiloty ratings are now so low that they've actually dropped off the bottom of the Consumer Reports league table and are no longer listed. This means the odds of one running long enough to actually close pass you are quite slim.

 

[Arjimlad]

@mjr soz - I think that's what I meant !

 

[mjr]

Its called real life? What do you want me to do about motorists who pass too closely?

In order of difficulty: not keep suggesting that everyone should be happy with traffic violence; ride centrally in narrow lanes; press for more enforcement of minimum passing distances; report close passers that you catch on camera.

As I keep on asking, and no one seems to be able to answer. [...] I see people suggest reporting drivers to the police, unless someone magics up more hours in the day I simply don't have the time or inclination to do that.

In other words, people were able to answer but you did not like the answer!

It's not a matter of creating more hours, it's how you allocate them: people like me and @Arjimlad think it worth spending the time helping police find out who needs educating or removing from the roads before they do worse to other cyclists. You feel you have more important things to do with that time and that's fine, but please stop basically suggesting that we should all bend over and accept idiot drivers attempting to mount us.

 

[mjr]

I just checked and no one has said "Space Karen" in this thread yet, so I thought I'd be the first to say it.

Is that Tesla's new SUV?

 

[gzoom]

In order of difficulty: not keep suggesting that everyone should be happy with traffic violence; ride centrally in narrow lanes; press for more enforcement of minimum passing distances; report close passers that you catch on camera.

Am sorry again maybe you live in a different world from me, but how does any of that stop 'close' passes when I cycle home tonight? Please do tell me.

 

[DCBassman]

Am sorry again maybe you live in a different world from me, but how does any of that stop 'close' passes when I cycle home tonight? Please do tell me.

Well, if you ride centrally in narrow lanes, then during those parts of your ride, you cannot be close-passed. So that helps you somewhat when you cycle home tonight.

 

[mjr]

Am sorry again maybe you live in a different world from me, but how does any of that stop 'close' passes when I cycle home tonight? Please do tell me.

Rome wasn't built in a day, so it's not an entirely reasonable question, but riding centrally in narrow lanes will usually stop some close passes (no need for the scare quotes: close is close). I find looking behind at the following driver also discourages some, but that's a lot less certain. Beyond that, why won't you take action today to help yourself and others tomorrow? That's what I don't get about you: if it doesn't offer you immediate complete protection, then you seem to dismiss it as not worthwhile.

We can't prevent all of them immediately, of course. If you search on here, you'll probably find me pulling people up for using language that implies we can. Not even riding on a kerb-protected cycleway will stop 100% of bozo drivers because some will still mount the farking kerb (at speed, without looking, let alone yielding to cycleway users) to do stuff like pass a car that's stopped centrally waiting to turn. All you can do is discourage them, both now and in the future.

And yes, I know I live in a different roadscape to you: I cross one 40mph road, then can get almost all the way to my nearest town's central 20mph zones on kerbed cycleways, thanks to past cyclists here having pushed for them. In the other direction, I can take C/U roads to the edges of other nearby towns and their cycleways. Unless I deliberately choose to ride on the rural main roads rather than the back lanes, I'm unlikely to be close-passed at speed - but even on the main roads, it should not happen, of course.

 

[matticus]

Riding in the gutter/to the left invites close passes (as well as punctures and, depending on parking arrangements, possibly also dooring). Owning the lane discourages passes of any kind, and gives you plenty of room to escape into. Somewhere in between works well, allowing sane drivers to pass, yet still have some escape room from nutters and so you can easily move centrally to block overtakes if there is a pinch point coming up,

But we all know that.

You would think so, wouldn't you??

 

[gzoom]

And yes, I know I live in a different roadscape to you: I cross one 40mph road, then can get almost all the way to my nearest town's central 20mph zones on kerbed cycleways, thanks to past cyclists here having pushed for them. In the other direction, I can take C/U roads to the edges of other nearby towns and their cycleways. Unless I deliberately choose to ride on the rural main roads rather than the back lanes, I'm unlikely to be close-passed at speed - but even on the main roads, it should not happen, of course.

Yeaph you do live in a different world to me. I cross a 3 lane 5 exit round about every day with a HGV depot near by, dual carriageways, and single lane road + inner city roads.

I've been commuting on/off for the last 10 years on the bike, I've just learnt its utterly pointless to get annoyed/angry at car drivers. I do actually cycle quite defensively around junctions, but I've had people than go around a traffic island (in the opposite lane ironically) so they can get ahead of me before a right turn - I don't care any more, its their car and if they crash into on coming traffic trying to pass me its their fault.

I simply don't see the point of trying to enforce totally unenforcable practices like mandating cars need to pass cyclists in the opposite lane, its just no going to happen. If I tried to report what you guys would judge to be a 'near pass' - less than 1 meter, every day I would be filling in a dozen reports - I have better things to do with my time.

For me the only solution is the removal humans from the driving seat, if you tell an automated car never to pass a cyclist untill the opposite lane is clear it will do it every time. When on Autopilot my Tesla refuses to go above the posted speed limit in urban zones, so 20 = 20, 30 = 30, how many human driver can actually NEVER break the 20-30mph limit in cities?

Where you cycle sounds lovely though .